The Year End Financial Statements were circulated and revised, as attached. We presently have $905.48 in the general account, $304.09 in the bursary, $119.99 in the bee account, and $0 in the shed account (-$1,008.20). Current bank account signers who attended the AGM were Cheryl Stapleton, Tanya St. John, Kate Vincent.

Work on the shed is finished.

ACTION: Cheryl will close the shed account.

Irwin would like to suggest the budget for garden maintenance of the garden remain the same as the 2014 budget of $500 for ‘Garden Care’.

Compost: Florence Ewanchute reported that one of the composts is ready to use. The question about the compost location was revisited. Elizabeth Dunn mentioned that there are free workshops from ‘City Farmer’ at 6th/Maple St in Vancouver on composting.

Action: Carol Wood and Willie Turner are on a committee that is working on putting together a survey to be sent out to the garden membership. To be discussed at next Board meeting.

Elizabeth to email some take home messages from the composting workshop she attended to the membership and post it on the Google groups website.

Shed: All work has been completed except for door handles.

Action: Irwin Figueira will put 3 decorative pitchforks onto the shed doors as handles. Very minimal cost (<50$ for brackets). Concrete blocks left over from old shed and will install into new shed 2×2 square tiles to go in front of doors. Min cost.

Bees: update provided by Jo-Anne Platt via email

The honey boxes were pulled off the hives 2 weeks ago and it looks like we have approximately 220lbs of honey this year! We’ll be extracting the second week in October and then we’ll have lots for sale. This year we’re bottling in 500ml jars and selling them for $13. I’ll put an announcement up on the Google group and set up a sale date.

Membership committee: Cheryl going to take over the list and calling the waitlist.

1) Enclosing flower garden: The four boards behind shed will be used to make a border on west side of shed encasing the flower garden. Irwin reported that Hilary and Willie from the beautification committee are on board with the plan. Max ($100 for 3 projects Irwin)

Lattice: next Spring, during March/April work parties, build lattice above North and South gates for honey suckle and wisteria to grow on

Fruit trees: Irwin proposed getting a dormant spray for the fruit trees to get rid of aphids. This work would be started now and to be completed over the winter.

Irwin put out a request for $300 to cover a sprayer, the lattice and hardware for the border.

-Elizabeth Dunn mentioned that the city provides the service of green bin for larger tree/greenery items that can be picked up if put by the side of the street

Motion to approve green bin, not carried

– Florence Ewanchute mentioned that there is a chair on North side where people do drugs.

Action: Members can call a special needle collection number to come get needles picked up (Needle Pick-up: 604-657-6561 Email: needlevan@phs.ca)

– The suggestion of having a message board on the shed to inform garden members of current projects in the garden was approved by all.

– Discussion about whether there is a need to enforce bi-laws of the garden to be discussed at the February meeting. Kate Vincent suggested reminder email be sent out to all members regarding keeping dogs on a leash. Also brought up the idea of having people attend at least one work party per year and keeping attendance.

– Discussion about whether we want to raise garden fee by $5 to be discussed at 2016 Fall AGM

Let’s get this gardening season rollin’!! Please come out to our season opener where we will hear what the various committees are planning for the year and we’ll have guest speaker Master Gardener Heather Gillis with us to do a small presentation on things like composting, pruning (fruit trees, grape vines and raspberry canes), common food plant pests and diseases, overwintering crops and how to maximize small growing spaces. Bring your questions too!

Venue: 2370 Franklin St./ at corner of Nanaimo St. in common room to the right of front entrance. See you all there!

Hey everyone! It’s time to let us know whether or not you will be returning to garden in 2015. Since we have such a big waiting list, it’s important that you get your User Agreement and plot fees in by the deadline on March 1st. Contact us if you need the form, or if you have any questions: pandoraparkcommunitygarden@gmail.com

We’ll be holding our Annual General Meeting on Sunday August 11th, starting at 4pm, in the common room of Norah Davis Gardens, 2320 Franklin Street. All gardeners are encouraged to come – we give reports on how the garden’s doing financially and otherwise, you get updates on all our projects, and we elect new directors for our society.

And after the meeting part, we have a potluck dinner in the garden, so please join us!

Kate Follington, our wonderful founding gardener who has returned home to Australia, was really the driving force behind our terrific garden gate on the south side. She also put together a lovely video on the making of it, which shows the evolution. Watch it on YouTube here: